Finish the War

By

Victor Davis Hanson

Updated Sept. 17, 2002 12:18 a.m. ET

There are lulls in all wars. Even successful militaries must take their breath, as they redirect their efforts to additional theaters, reassess past performance, stockpile supplies, seek out new allies and wait for opportune weather.

Wars, by their very nature, are different from the drama of individual battles. Even during infamously bloody conflicts such as the Peloponnesian and Punic Wars, the American Civil War and World War II, there were long periods of relative calm. Indeed, such intervals of apparent peace often...